Truckee Police: Home burglaries on the rise

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TRUCKEE, Calif. — Detectives are investigating an increase in home burglaries, predominantly in the Tahoe Donner and west Donner Lake neighborhoods, officials said.

Activity has picked up since Nov. 1, 2013, Truckee Police Sgt. Bob Womack said Tuesday. Burglars are targeting mostly second homes, often bypassing security systems, forcing open doors using tools and kicking in doors.

“We really don’t have any witnesses and are still working on leads like pawn shops and things like that,” Womack said. “We’re not having a lot of success in finding the perpetrators.”

While Womack couldn’t provide an exact number of burglaries that have occurred in Truckee, he said detectives believe they could be related to a recent rash during the same time span across the North Shore and Incline Village.

“There have been enough that we’ve definitely seen more residential burgs; we just can’t tie them together because not all are exactly the same and it’s a hard thing to guess to say which ones are related,” he said.

Some evidence that has been recovered is being forwarded to the California Department of Justice for processing, he said, and Truckee Police is working with the Placer and Washoe county sheriff’s offices to develop leads.

In most of the Truckee cases, Womack said no one has seen burglars on the prowl.

“The single biggest thing is for everybody to get to know their neighbors — they will know who doesn’t belong and know who shouldn’t be there,” he said.

Anyone with information about the crimes should contact the department at 530-550-2323.